The Finance Ministry has sought the views of its field officers in the Income-Tax Department on the matter of suo-motu issuance of permanent account numbers (PAN) in certain cases.

The Centre had, through the Finance Act 2006 (Budget 2006), taken powers to allow the assessing officers to suo motu issue PANs in certain cases. The Revenue Department is in the process of framing the rules that would specify the nature of transactions for which PANs could be issued suo motu. The rules are also expected to specify the procedure for such issuance of PANs.

"We have written to the field formations on the matter of suo-motu issuance of PANs," Mr K.M. Chandrasekhar, Revenue Secretary, said. The views of the field formations are to be factored in the rules being prepared by the Revenue Department.

In his budget speech, the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, had highlighted that the scrutiny on high-value transactions revealed that 60 per cent of such transactions were without quoting PANs. He had then announced the Centre's decision to take powers to issue PANs suo motu in certain cases.

Moreover, the Centre had also taken powers to direct certain class of persons to apply for PAN in certain cases. Besides prescribing, in due course, more transactions for which quoting of PAN would be necessary, the Centre also intends to specify a few more transactions that have to be reported in Annual Information Return (AIR).

"We expect to finalise by July the additional list of transactions that have to be reported in AIR," Mr Chandrasekhar said. Currently, authorities like banks and property registrars are required to report transactions beyond specified limits to the Revenue Department through AIR. As of now, 7 categories of transactions are covered under the AIR. This is likely to be broad-based in July.